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Russian police on Saturday detained more than 2,100 people attending peaceful demonstrations in support of jailed opposition activist Alexei Navalny, in a violent response to national protests that will become the largest in the country in years.
Navalny, the most prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, was jailed this week upon returning from Germany, where he was recovering from an assassination attempt that he says was ordered by the Kremlin, and called on his supporters to hold demonstrations to demand your release.
Tens of thousands of Russians responded by defying freezing temperatures, an often violent police response and official warnings of a harsh crackdown to flood the streets in 107 cities across the country.
In Moscow, where police said 4,000 people turned out to protest but Reuters estimated there were 10 times as many, crowds spread for miles in all directions from central Pushkin Square, clogging sidewalks and blocking traffic as they spilled onto the street. Street.
When riot police armed with batons and in bulletproof vests and balaclavas approached to arrest them, some protesters either snowballed them or defended themselves to free the detainees from custody. In St. Petersburg, protesters broke through a police barricade and marched through the city.
Supporters of Alexei Navalny attend a rally in Saint Petersburg © REUTERS
State media said that some 40 riot police in Moscow suffered minor injuries. The driver of a black car with government license plates and a VIP beacon was hospitalized after protesters wrecked his car and gouged out an eye, according to the state news service RIA Novosti.
Police had arrested 2,131 people as of 4 p.m. GMT, including 795 in Moscow and 309 in St. Petersburg, according to independent watchdog OVD-Info.
Among them were Mr. Navalny’s wife, Yulia, and senior aide Lyubov Sobol, who were arrested as soon as they reached the square. Ms. Navalnaya was released a few hours later.
Russian officials opened several criminal investigations into the rallies, while Moscow authorities said 19 people with coronavirus had attended, making the rallies a health hazard.
The Kremlin’s children’s ombudsman, who had accused Navalny of using his youth supporters online as “human shields,” said 15 underage protesters were arrested.
Schools and universities had warned students and parents of children up to 10 years old not to attend the protests.
The head of the Moscow office of consulting firm McKinsey, which counts various government agencies and state-owned companies as its clients, sent an email to staff prohibiting them from protesting or expressing support for the rallies online.
McKinsey later told the Financial Times: “McKinsey supports the rights of its employees to participate legally and in their personal capacity in civic and political activities in the countries in which we operate. The recognition of these rights is unconditional ”.
Several protesters said they had never attended a rally before, but were excited about the Kremlin’s treatment of Navalny, who faces up to 13 and a half years in prison on charges he says are retaliation for exposing the alleged role. of Russia in its poisoning.
“I’m sick of all these things. I am 19 years old, Putin has been in power my whole life and I don’t see any hope for the country, ”said Anastasia, a student at a Moscow state university. “There is poverty and state terrorism. And what they did to Navalny is scandalous and illegal. ”
Police detain a protester in St. Petersburg © AP
In Moscow, crowds chanted “Putin is a thief!” and “Free Navalny!” As the passing cars honked their horns in support and thundered Changes, a Soviet-era rock anthem popular with protesters in Belarus.
Before the protest began, squads of up to 10 officers ran into the crowd and grabbed people, seemingly at random, prompting shouts of “Disgrace!” of the spectators.
Images from the Russian city of Vladivostok, in the Far East, where thousands of people had gathered, showed riot police chasing protesters down the street.
In Yakutsk, a city 8,000 kilometers east of Moscow, police arrested 30 people among the few hundred who braved -50 ° C temperatures to protest.
“I want Russia to be free. I support Navalny. I want a future for my children, ”said Svetlana, 60, a retiree, who attended the Moscow rally. “I really have. Everything is falling apart. There is no healthcare or pensions. I want things to change. “
Navalny’s team hopes that the scale of the protests, especially in eastern cities and Siberia, where anti-Kremlin activities are rare, will pressure the Putin administration to release him.
Navalny was jailed on charges of breaking the terms of a 2014 suspended sentence, which could land him in prison for three and a half years. He also faces a fraud charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
The Kremlin, which denies any role in the August nerve agent attack on Navalny that nearly killed him, has said the demonstrations are illegal. Police pre-emptively arrested many of Navalny’s closest aides this week to prevent them from attending the rallies and warned social media companies that they would be prosecuted for failing to remove posts advertising the protests.
Moscow has said it will ignore calls of condemnation from Western countries and their demands for Navalny’s release, describing it as an internal problem.
